I really really enjoyed this one! I was a big fan of Give Me a Sign by the same author, so I had high expectations for this book and it did not disappoint. I think she has officially become an auto buy author for me and I can’t wait to read what she writes next. I could not put this book down once I started and I read most of it in one day. It was such a quick and easy read that really sucked you in and left you needing to know what happened to the characters next.

There were so many amazing things about this book that I would love to talk about. This book talked heavily about disability from two very different viewpoints. It had one character who has been deaf her whole life and who has embraced it and loves to celebrate her own deafness. She has formed a beautiful relationship with her deafness, which has fed into her personality and relationships with others. She has also found a community that supports her needs and really makes her happy. Then on the other side of the story, we have a character who is experiencing disability for the first time. He is suffering from unexpected symptoms and uncertainty until he finally gets an MS diagnosis. He has to grapple with what this diagnosis means for himself and his future. He also has to come to terms with the fact that this disability will not go away and is something that he will have to live with for the rest of his life. This dichotomy between the two characters really shows the range of disability experiences and exposes readers to a whole new range of ideas. However, between both characters they still have similarities and their own frustrations and challenges that really bring them together and teach them to lean on each other.

One theme that showed up a lot in this story was how others respond to one’s disability and the effects that can have. Both main characters had a variety of reactions to their disabilities, both positive and negative, and it was very impactful to see the different things that some people may experience and how those interactions can really impact them. It is very important to think about your words and actions and the impact it can have on others.

The romance was also very cute and I loved the themes of friendship, connection, finding your voice, strength, and change throughout the story.

I really think that there is something for everyone in this book and I would absolutely recommend it. Whether you have a disability, you want to learn more, or you just want to read a cute YA romance, I would definitely pick this book up.

I can not wait for the release date so more people can get their hands on this book.

I absolutely DEVOURED Anna Sortino's debut novel, Give Me a Sign, when I read it in 2023, and this book was no different! I read it from "cover" to "cover" in a day! Truthfully, I liked her first book better, but her sophomore release holds space for just as touching, timely, and nuanced discussions around the disabled experience.

What I LOVED:

The sobering message that anyone, at any time, can become disabled. We've talked about this a lot in the last few years in terms of (long) COVID, when even people who had been "healthy" their entire lives were put on ventilators and suffering from symptoms long after testing negative again. Especially when we're young, we think about disability as something that happens to us later in life (we all get old, then have trouble taking care of ourselves). This is Jackson's perception at the beginning of the book. But like Jackson, young people can become disabled when they're... well, young.

How even well-intentioned parents can hurt us. Jackson's dad pushes him WAY too hard to always be moving ("hey son, let's go do CrossFit training after you played a scrimmage all morning"). His mom is basically anti-vax (she regrets getting him vaccinated so he could go to public school) and believes in homeopathic medicine. Both his parents are skeptical of traditional medicine and only rush him to the doctor/hospital when something is SERIOUSLY wrong. Jackson's diagnosis is a miniscule come-to-Jesus moment for them (mainly for his dad; his mom still researches 'alternative' treatments and tries to control his diet).

The importance of finding community. When Ellie is forced to mainstream after her Deaf school is shut down, she loses her Deaf community that she had built over the last five years. She returns home to a hearing family who never bothered to learn sign and doesn't understand why she needs hearing breaks (her mother tells her that unless she is sleeping, she MUST have her cochlear and hearing aid in). She is now the only deaf student at her school and must rebuild that sense of community. I loved her little found family and the Deaf House. After his diagnosis, an essential part of Jackson's healing comes from finding community in the MS group.

Ellie's nuanced perspective on disability pride. Having pride doesn't mean you never wish for a cure for your disability. It means knowing your disability doesn't make you "lesser than" abled people or who you were before disability.

Ellie's acknowledgment that her experience of disability since birth is different from Jackson's experience of sudden disability. Ellie does not know a life before or without her Deafness, so it does not feel like a loss to her. Her Deafness is also a stable part of her identity (it won't get worse as she gets older). But Jackson's entire lifestyle must change after his MS diagnosis (he can no longer be as active as he once was or play soccer to the same degree as he once could), and he faces a scary and unknown future (as MS is a progressive disease).

What I think could be improved:

The pacing. The build up to Jackson's diagnosis took up much of the book.

Ellie and Jackson's relationship. I don't know, I didn't feel a huge connection or spark between them. They seemed to like each other almost immediately. There wasn't much tension or pining.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the advanced copy of this book! All thoughts are my own.

Oh My Goodness! On The Bright Side was such an adorable yet vulnerable book about disability and learning how to live and thrive with it. Ellie and Jackson were adorable and had me giggling throughout the entire book!

Sometimes I’ll pick up a book and it just clicks. I don’t want to put it down, I’m so invested in the characters and their lives that I just need to know what happens next. That’s definitely what happened for me with this book.

This is told in a dual POV between Ellie, a Deaf teenager born to a hearing family, who had been attending a Deaf school until it shut down, and Jackson, a soccer star who is beyond overworked and going through some really complicated things with his body (which we will get into a little bit later). They meet when Ellie is transferred to Jackson’s high school and even though things get off it a rough start, their friendship is really special.

Now, I wasn’t too sure how I felt about Ellie at first, because she is just this ball of attitude but it makes sense. She’s spent years going to Brandview and that was ripped out from under her. She went from being fully submersed in Deaf culture, able to communicate easily with her friends using ASL, to being back home with her frankly ableist parents and stuck being the only Deaf kid at her school. I’d have attitude too. Her parents really made everything worse… like a lot worse, they’re awful.

Jackson is a completely different story, because I loved him from the moment he came onto the page. His parents are a little overbearing and for a lot of the book he’s overworked between soccer, workouts with his dad, random events, and school. He’s also struggling a little with his body. There are some things happening to him physically and we go on this journey with him as he gets diagnosed with MS.

There are so many things that happen throughout the book but the one thing that’s clear from page 1 is that both Ellie and Jackson have big hearts. They’re both incredibly supportive of each other and I just adored their dynamic.

I’m also going to say that this book really made it click in my head that I am drawn to books where at least one character has a complicated relationship with their parents. I love that for me.

But the tl;dr is basically: read the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Teen for the gifted eARC of this book.

3.75 rounded up to 4! 🌟🤟🏻💜

A sweet story on navigating youth with a disability. “On The Bright Side” is Sortino’s second YA novel about young girls and boys in the disabled community. This book follows Ellie, a young deaf girl who is thristed back into a mainstream school after growing up in a deaf boarding school; and Jackson, an athlete who is diagosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

I was lucky enough to receive an ARC for Sortino’s debut YA novel, and was delighted when I saw this one in my inbox from NetGalley as well! Anna did not disappoint with the representation in this book! While I do feel like some points were rushed and I would have liked the characters to communicate better, I see how their disabilities and youthful characters play a role in how they act and talk. Such a sweet, short story!

I enjoyed this book. I think it's a perfect YA book that older readers can relate to as well.
I loved the disability representation and felt the author did a great job putting something like being deaf on paper. I was able to easily determine what was being said using ASL and what was actual dialogue. She also did a great job portraying Jackson's MS and how he handled his diagnosis.

Everything aside, the book on its own without the representation was a cute read. I would for sure recommend this to not only YA in my life, but my older friends who just need a good love story.

Anna Sortino is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Last year, I read Give Me a Sign, and I absolutely loved reading a book that incorporated deaf culture. (I am not deaf myself, but do have hearing loss, which I wear a hearing aid for.) So since I loved her debut so much, I was excited to see On the Bright Side available to request on Netgalley. To be honest, I didn't even read the synopsis, but I knew I'd enjoy the book.

Give Me a Sign is a YA romance between Ellie, who is deaf, and Jackson, who is eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Sortino developed these two characters with beauty and grace, and created a romantic pair that readers will root for. I don't know much about MS, so I enjoyed the book the representation. Though the book is fiction, Sortino pulled details from her own life to create an authentic character. I feel like this book provided me with an entry level amount of knowledge about MS, and it actually made me want to learn more about the disease.

Give Me a Sign was one of my favorite books of 2023, and while we are only a quarter of the way through 2024, I can already tell that On the Bright Side will be one of my favorites for this year. The book has not released yet, but I am already excited to see what Sortino has in store for her third book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with an ARC! I came for the story of Ellie, a deaf student, and stayed for the story of Jackson, a newly diagnosed, disabled teen. The story was great, and I loved the characters! I think this book really defines just how hard it is to be a teenager, especially one with a disability. My only complaint, is that in an effort to raise awareness and explain deafness and MS, sometimes the nuance of the story was sacrificed! Definitely and eye-opening read though!

I read Anna Sortino’s debut earlier this year, and immediately knew I couldn’t wait to read anything she writes, and On the Bright Side is a phenomenal follow-up. This is intense in a lot of ways because it doesn’t shy away from casual ableism and the challenges that can be part of a Deaf person’s life when they come from a hearing family. I loved Ellie’s journey and knowing who she is while finding a new support group and friends when her Deaf school is shut down before her senior year. Jackson is also a really great character, though goodness both of them have parents that could use some light aeration (though Ellie’s family is more egregious than Jackson’s). I especially loved and appreciated the contrast of his own disability journey and coming to terms with a new diagnosis for multiple sclerosis. This book gave so much space for different experiences and also focused on how much community and common experiences can improve quality of life because of the particularities of being seen and understood in that way. All around I loved this book so much and read it in a single sitting!

I was not prepared to enjoy this book as much as I did.
Accessibility in the workplace is something I am passionate about. I went into this book blind and was ecstatic to find this was about disabilities and accessibility awareness wrapped all into a YA romance.

‘I’m too exhausted to educate you today’ is an entire mood and one that so many people exist within after spending their day navigating a world that isn’t created to accommodate their needs and interacting with people that don’t care to learn about how to better interact with them to create a workplace, school where inclusion is the standard.

I really enjoy how the author made this a subtle theme throughout the book, gave a nod to how quickly being different ostracizes someone from the rest of their classmates or coworkers because it requires more effort to understand their needs, and also discussed ‘anybody can become disabled at any time’. This was such a well written, well timed book.

My heart broke for the FMC in a hearing family that never attempted to accommodate her needs.
My soul ached for the MMC fighting for his parent’s approval while denying what is happening to his body.
I would recommend this to anybody who works in DEI, disability advocacy, knows anybody with a disability and wants to have a deeper self awareness as they interact with the general public that disabilities are not just visible.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this gem!!

This was a great book! The writing was amazing and the plot was very interesting. I loved the disability rep

After reading give me a sign, I was really glad I got the chance to read the ARC for on the bright side.

I really loved this book and once I started it was hard to put down. As with all of Anna’s work, the disability representation is amazing and gives me a new perspective. As a partner of a hard of hearing person, Anna’s books really make me think critically about the accessibility of the world around me even in terms of my own relationship and household.

I highly recommend reading this book both for the information and experiences that clearly shine through the characters, but for a YA rom com that will have you giggling and kicking your feet throughout.

This is the second book by Anna Sortino that I've read and I can already tell that her writing is getting better and better. I was EATING On the Bright Side up and was invested in both characters storylines. It was very beneficial to the story to see two sides of disability, one of someone who has been disabled her entire life and has accepted it and another from someone who gets diagnosed with a disability through the course of the novel and has to reckon with how his life is fundamentally different now. It was just so good I don't have a ton of words for it, but make sure to pick this up when it comes out!!

Thank you so much for letting me read this! I have MS and was so excited to see a book with MS rep written by an author with MS! I hope we can get more books with MS rep in them.

I loved this author’s book Give Me a Sign and was so happy and excited to get an ARC of this book (thank you NetGalley and the publisher)!

This book follows Ellie and Jackson, two teenagers handling different experiences. Ellie goes to a deaf centered school and it closes - leaving her to be immersed in a hearing school which she is not happy about. She also struggles with her family, because they don’t use ASL and expect her to always understand what’s going on. Jackson is a soccer star whose health takes a turn.

Things I loved about this book:
This book felt raw and real for the teenager experience. Ellie and Jackson are flawed, lovable characters that you root for!
Ellie’s anger was so understandable and I felt for her.
Jackson’s frustration was relatable and I loved how he embraced his vulnerability with Ellie.
Even though that first kiss was a little stressful, it was 👌🏻
I liked how Ellie stood up to her parents.
Loved the Deaf community Ellie found in this book!
Teenage sexual experiences are often messy and are not perfect. This was portrayed so well between these two characters who were figuring things out together.
Loved that NYE party 🥹
Such a great ending!!

Fully recommend picking this one up.

I loved seeing how Ellie and Jackson tackled their life changes both separately and together. I can't wait to see what Sortino writes next!!

On the Bright Side is a sweet romance that is perfect for fans of shows like Switched at Birth. This story features disability representation in a multitude of ways and has a love story that will not fail to make you smile. Pick this book up for yourself when it releases and see for yourself why everyone is falling in love with On the Bright Side.

This story drew me in from the very first page. Both Ellie and Jackson’s journey is undoubtedly challenging and managed to work their way through it together. I technically started this book about only 20 pages into it already this morning and finished it hours later because that is how hooked I was to this story.

I was so invested in the growing bond between Ellie and Jackson. The message this book sends is such a touching one. This book had me feeling all the feelings and I am not at all complaining.

If I had to critique ANYTHING (very minor) but there was a scene where Ellie and Jackson have a conflict and it was not really resolved. It was understandable as to why but I kinda wanted the two characters to discuss the matter in means to move past it.

Overall, the story concluded the storylines smoothly! Anna Sortino, thank you for this brilliant story! And to Penguin Teen, thank you so much for the egalley access! Can’t wait for its official release!

Such a lovely story with great disability representation. I thought the writing style used to showcase the use of sign language was very well done, and I loved the character growth throughout.

I really like how the author shows the differences of two different disabilities. She has a way of captivating me with her stories. I enjoy how she italicizes whenever ASL is used in the story. It helps me visualize the conversation in my head. I liked how the two main characters didn't always understand what was going on with the other but then opened up and let each other in. This book is a fantastic read.